


Turn Loose the Mermaids

by Havoka



Category: Fear the Walking Dead (TV), Fear the Walking Dead: Flight 462 (Web Series)
Genre: I don't need canon it disappoints me, big sis mermaid and her little merbro get off that miserable boat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-26
Updated: 2016-04-26
Packaged: 2018-06-04 16:40:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6666271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Havoka/pseuds/Havoka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oh how she wished she could be a mermaid. That she could get herself and this innocent boy she had doomed somewhere safe. Somewhere away from it all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Turn Loose the Mermaids

The sun was unrelenting out in the open, shadeless sea. Alex’s skin was dry and burned in several places. She could only imagine how poor Jake was feeling.

The boy was tough. They’d been adrift at sea for three days, and in that time they’d exhausted the little bit of food and water the people from the boat had given them. The teenage girl on board had slipped Alex a small bottle of aloe vera, which she’d used to treat Jake’s burns. The whole bottle hadn’t served to cover even half his burn area, but at the time she’d felt it was better than nothing.

Now they were both slowly drying out under the relentless California sun.  

“Alex…”

She startled at Jake’s voice. “Yeah?”

“We’re gonna die, aren’t we…”

Alex remained silent. Should she lie to him? They almost certainly _were_ going to die. They were stranded in the middle of the ocean with no food, no water, no means of communication, and no idea where the nearest shoreline was. That boat had pulled them at least a couple of miles out. She’d attempted to paddle the tiny lifeboat in the direction she guessed that they’d come from, but no land ever appeared in her sight. Now she was too exhausted to do anything like that. At this point she was essentially just been trying to make Jake as comfortable as possible until the inevitable happened.

She lay down beside him. The sea beneath them gently rocked the tiny boat. If only they could swim the miles to shore – although there wasn’t much there, either. It would be better if they could escape to the bottom of the sea or something.

As a child Alex had always loved stories about mermaids. If only now she could sprout fins and take to the sea. She’d gladly leave the land. And the air too, for that matter.

She turned to Jake. The poor kid. He was going to die out here, miles from his family, from his parents. All because she’d been such a bitch, pushing her way through the crowd to take the last standby seat on an early flight because she felt her own time was worth more than anyone else’s.

She wiped her forehead, even though she’d long since run out of fluid to sweat out. They wouldn’t last much longer out here. She’d considered swimming out a bit and seeing if she could push the boat, but she was weak, and also afraid of tipping the boat while getting in or out, especially with nothing else to hold on to. In her dehydrated daze she’d already made the mistake once of splashing Jake with seawater to try to cool him off. Salt water plus third-degree burns did not yield a pleasant result. She’d apologized profusely, but still felt horrible about it. She could only imagine how it would feel if he were plunged into the ocean because she tipped the stupid boat over.

“We’ll be okay,” she whispered, her voice cracking from the dryness of her throat. “We’re gonna make it.” She ran a hand gingerly through Jake’s remaining hair. “Don’t worry.”

Jake coughed weakly. “I miss my parents.”

Alex’s breath caught. “I know,” she replied, a little more harshly than she’d intended. The guilt still gnawed at her. His mother should be here with him. She knew nothing of caring for children or teenagers. Hell, she wasn’t even that much older than him. She didn’t have any experience with siblings, either – she was an only child. An only child who had always longed for a sibling, yes, but an only child nonetheless.

She shifted her stare to him again. “Sorry. I wish my parents were here, too.”

They stared silently up at the cloudless sky. Heat shimmered in the air. Alex exhaled. She was feeling so weak, so drained. Everything seemed to be moving more slowly than usual, and her head throbbed when she moved too much.

She noticed Jake shiver. “Are you okay?” she quickly asked him.

“…Cold.”

Alex bit her lip. “That’s…probably not good.” She herself was feeling a bit feverish. She suspected they were both developing heat stroke.

Jake pulled his jacket tighter around himself. “No, don’t do that.” Alex reached weakly for him and opened the jacket again. “Your skin is hot. You’re probably burning up.”

A shudder ran through her as she lay back down. Everything around her felt distorted. Her vision was starting to swim at the edges, only adding to her disorientation.

Oh how she wished she could be a mermaid. That she could get herself and this innocent boy she had doomed somewhere safe. Somewhere away from it all.

 

* * *

 

_Alex…?_

The voice was watery and muffled in her ears. Alex pulled her dry, scaly eyelids apart. She attempted to wet her mouth to produce a response, but before she could her eyes settled on Jake’s lower half. She gasped.

His burned legs had seared together. His jeans were shredded around him, as if he’d torn his way out of them.

As she sat up she noticed her own legs had changed as well. Her feet were angled outward so that her heels touched. Her pants were torn as well, and the skin underneath was hard and smooth, almost…scale-like.

“What’s going on, Alex?”

She stared down at herself in disbelief. Her feet were different – wider and flatter, almost like…fins. Her legs were, like Jake’s, completely fused.

Trying to move her legs resulted in the new single limb waving about in the hot, dry air. It was almost like a tail. Like a mermaid tail…

_Oh my God. Could it really be–?_

“Let me try something.” Alex pulled herself over to the edge of the boat. Careful not to tip it over as she’d feared doing earlier, she climbed over the side of it and cautiously submerged herself partway in the sea. Immediately her burning skin was soothed by the cool seawater. Despite her weakness, her tail was powerful and easily kept her afloat.

On a whim she decided to dive briefly under. She took a deep breath before doing so, but soon found she hadn’t needed to – she felt no desperation for oxygen under the water. In fact, she felt all-around better beneath the surface.

She resurfaced on the other side of the boat, beside Jake. A faint spray of seawater accidentally splashed him. Alex gasped and immediately apologized, but to her surprise Jake didn’t seem too affected by it.

“That…actually didn’t hurt this time,” he said quietly. “It felt kinda good, actually.”

“Really?” Alex smiled just the tiniest bit. “That’s good! You must be healing, I guess.”

Shocking her, Jake dragged himself to the side of the boat and reached a singed hand down toward the water’s surface. The redistributed weight of his new tail must have shifted his center of gravity, because the boat tipped unexpectedly.

Jake cried out as the lifeboat flipped over, dumping him into the sea.

“Jake!” Alex rushed to him. Her new tail gave her a boost of speed. It felt like she was upon him instantly. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him up out of the water as much as she could. “Are you okay?”

He looked down at his fused legs, now beginning more and more to resemble a scaly fish tail. Then he looked up at Alex. “I’m okay. What’s going on?”

“I really don’t know.” Alex swished her own tail. “The last thing I remember before this was lying in the boat wishing we could swim away from here. Now this…” She laughed a little, nervously, but it was the first time she could recall doing so since everything had happened. A few hours ago she’d been preparing to die. Now she felt better than ever, and they seemingly had a way to escape their miserable imprisonment at sea.

Jake withdrew from her grasp enough to lower himself a bit deeper into the water. After testing the waters a bit and apparently being okay with them, Jake submerged himself completely. Alex followed suit. She hadn’t even realized just how oxygen-starved she’d been in the hot, miserable air. The ocean was cool and rejuvenating and it filled her with newfound energy. She swam downward, letting her eyes adjust to the salty water. It didn’t take long.

To her surprise, Jake followed her down. The sun cast its beams of light down to the watery depths, lighting their dive. Alex descended deeper and deeper, closing her eyes and allowing herself to half-swim, half-sink toward the ocean floor. At no point did she feel the need for breath. Ensuring Jake remained close to her, she took his hand and led their descent, away from the world, away from it all.

**Author's Note:**

> So was Alex's longing to protect Jake strong enough that the universe took pity on them and transformed them, like something out of a work of classical mythology? Or is Alex delirious from heat stroke and the two of them are actually about to drown? Or did they actually die from dehydration on the boat and this is their spirits accepting it and finding peace? You can draw whatever conclusion you want, although *I* like to believe it's the first option...
> 
> Inspiration and title from [this song](https://youtu.be/DJS5g4-p3K4).


End file.
